Gustav Andreas Tammann
Gustav Andreas Tammann ( born July 24, 1932 in Göttingen ) is a German astronomer.
Tammann studied astronomy in Basel and Göttingen. In 1963 he went to the Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatory and began a long association with Allan Sandage.
He became a professor at the University of Hamburg in 1972. From 1977 until his retirement he was Professor and Director of the Astronomical Institute at the University of Basel.
Tammann addresses specifically the cosmic distance scale, the Hubble constant, and thus connected with cosmic distance indicators such as supernovae and Cepheids. Tammann and Sandage represented in the 1990 figures of 50 to 60 for the Hubble constant, while a U.S. school represented by de Vaucouleurs values of 80 to 100, partially supported by observations with the Hubble Space Telescope. Today, a value of 72 is favored and an age of the universe of about 13 billion years.
GA Tammann is the grandson of the physical chemist Gustav Tammann.
Honors
- 2000 Albert Einstein Medal
- 2000 Tomalla Price
- 2005 Karl Schwarzschild Medal